Many Britons could not call upon emergency savings

More than a quarter of UK households admit they don’t have access to emergency savings, raising fresh concerns about many people’s readiness for any future economic downturn.

A new study found that 27 per cent of Britons would be unable to draw on a rainy day fund should they need to.

The data, taken from the ING International Survey, which collated responses from 15 different countries, found that the proportion of people in this position in Britain was above the European average – albeit only slightly.

The analysis also suggested that a sizeable minority of our population had debts of one description or other, which could increase anxiety about the state of many people’s finances should the economy take a turn for the worse.

According to the figures, 12 per cent owed money from a personal loan, 27 per cent had racked up credit cards bills and 12 per cent currently had an overdraft. A little less than one in ten of the respondents owed money to friends or relatives or was burdened with a student loan debt.

The precarious position of a significant number of people will inevitably raise concerns about the possible impact of the Bank of England announcing any further increases in base interest rates.

Ian Bright, a senior economist and the managing director of group research at ING, said: “The number of households with limited savings indicates how financially fragile many people are.

“Many simply do not have any money left at the end of the month to put aside. But there are also those who could save but don’t.”

The ING International study asked questions of almost 15,000 people in the UK, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, Turkey, Australia and the United States.

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